This is an atmospheric but dated haunted house film, which features some decent moments but not enough chills or scares to truly recommend it. SPOILERS
Category: 1980
New Year’s Evil (1980, Emmett Alston)
I live tweet this one, though I didn’t do a very good job. I was kind of hoping more people would be doing the same, but only 5 people were into it, it seems. Anyway: as far as I know, this is the only New Year’s Eve horror film. It was the only one we …
From the House of the Dead (1980) by Leos Janacek, performed by the Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Staatsopernchor conducted by Charles Mackerras featuring Jiri Zahradnicek, Ivo Zidek, Vaclav Zitek
This disc pairs Janacek’s last (and shortest?) opera with two unrelated chamber pieces performed by an entirely different orchestra, grumble.
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
In 1980, there was no real way for for North American audiences to digest non-English language television. So, on occasions when multiple-episode television programs made there way over to North America, they were screened at film festivals as “films.” A number of European “art house” films from the ’70s and ’80s are actually made-for-tv miniseries. …
Holst: A Winter Idyll (1993) by David Atherton et al.
This is a collection of short orchestral pieces and excerpts of longer ones, by Holst. It is not performed by the same group throughout (as it’s a compilation) though, as far as I can tell (listening to a digital copy), the conductor is the same throughout (David Atherton).
Emotional Rescue (1980) by the Rolling Stones
I don’t know what to do with my first impressions. I’ve learned to distrust them. I give every album I review a minimum of three listens in order to defeat my initial prejudice. I adopted this approach, I think, because I wanted to be fair, but also because sometimes my initial impression did not jive …
Peter Gabriel [Melt] (1980)
On December 31, 2008, I wrote the following: This may sound stupid, but this sounds little too much like 1980. They had a good thing going, those Genesis guys… and while I know that version of the band could never have topped The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, neither Gabriel nor the rest of the …
British Steel (1980) by Judas Priest
I have heard that this was sort of the Black Album of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal – the genre’s more popular and most accessible record to date. I don’t know Judas Priest, and I have no idea how much of a departure this was from earlier Priest albums, but it’s certainly significantly …
Heaven and Hell (1980) by Black Sabbath
I’m struggling here, really struggling.
Los Angeles (1980) by X
In 2010 I wrote the following: On the whole this is a pretty great record and Xene is pretty damn alluring. There is a little too much Manzarek here for my liking. From the liner notes it sounds like the Doors cover and, perhaps, by extension, his involvement, was somehow a condition of the release, …
Talking Heads at the Capitol Theatre November 4, 1980
This is an incredible show which is very illustrative of the the “eras” bands go through. Talking Heads in Stop Making Sense area great band, but they are utter professionals. They are having a great time, and they backed by a unique stage show that ads to the experience, but they are polished and utterly …
The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark (1997) by Grant Green
This compiles the first three albums Grant recorded with pianist Sonny Clark before the band was expanded to a quintet later in 1962. Interestingly, none of these albums were released until 1980 (in Japan) which, given the quality of the music, it’s really hard to understand.
The Viceroy of Ouidah (1980) by Bruce Chatwin
Is this mythology as history? Or maybe narrative journalism as history?
Franck: String Quartet; Violin Sonata (1978, 1995, 2006) by Fitzwilliam Quartet; Pierre Amoyal, Pascal Roge
I am a sucker for a good string quartet and I like to think that this is a very good string quartet. It’s certainly interesting for its era and, though not as ballsy as so many of the great quartets of the early 20th century, I think it would probably bear comparison with other notable …
Gloria (1980, John Cassevettes)
I am a big Cassavettes fan. Until this movie, I had liked everything of his I had seen up this point, and I think Killing of a Chinese Bookie is one of the great American movies of the ’70s. But Gloria feels like his heart wasn’t in it. And that makes sense: Commissioned to write the …